reduce, reuse, recycle

Every since I was a little girl, my father has always taught me not to be wasteful. He was always telling me, "Don't leave that food on your plate. If we're paying for it, you're going to fnish it all" or "Heck no, don't throw that away! We can save that [insert various object] for later!" or "Wrap that chicken finger up in a napkin and stick it in your purse! I'm not too proud!"

A simple trip to the local fast food joint was an opportunity to stockup one's car or truck for simple emergencies. As we would sit to dine on a feast of hamburgers and french fries, he would grab a huge stack of napkins.

"But Dad," I would say, "we won't possibly need all those."

"Summer Michael," he would reply, "I''m gonna put these in the truck later. They'll come in handy one day."

As so it went with napkins, ketchup, assorted jams and jellies in little packets, salt, pepper, you name it. I was conditioned to either leave the surplus items on the edge of the table by my mother (that's another blog entirely, see "slow down so I can ketchup") or take them with me, as directed by my father.

Just last week, I was eating lunch with a friend. We had both taken a rather large stack of napkins. With my father's words echoing in my head, I decided to bring the leftover napkins along for the ride as we ventured back out to the car. I carelessly tossed them in the backseat, and I briefed my passenger on my father's pearls of wisdom. We placed our to-go cups filled with our beverages of choice in the driver's and passenger side cupholders, respectively, and headed off to our next destination.

Several days later, napkins forgotten but waiting wordlessly in the wings (aka, the backseat of my car), I was on my way to work when I noticed the other to-go still in the cup holder of my car.

As I went to pick it up, I was unpleasantly surprised by a soggy and disintegrated cup bottom. I muttered several words of disgust and emptied what was left of the drink into the parking lot, tossing the tattered remains into the back floorboard. My cupholders were now filled with a murky brown liquid.

Upon doing tossing the cup remains, I saw a flash of white peeking out at me. The napkins! Silently thanking my father for instilling within me his frugal and thrifty principles, I proceeded to soak up said liquid with the napkins. A few minutes later, problem solved!

So many things I have gleaned from my parents, and this has truly proved to be one of the most fruitful lessons.